NTLDR is missing, Press any key to restart

Question

I have a Dell Dimension 4800 that was running Windows XP. I had issues that made me decide to reinstall my OS   When I inserted the XP disk I tried to follow the instructios to reinstall but there seemed to be no option that allowed this.   I tried using another tower I had on hand to reinstall XP, which worked but I tried to put the hard drive back into the tower and now all I can do is get to the Setup screen (F2) or the Boot Options menu (F12). There is no options that will allow me to install Windows. I have tried the disk that came with the Dell computer as well as the copy of Windows XP I had for the other tower but nothing will work.   In my attempt to fix my machine I had removed the system battery to reset the Bios and I suspect there is some setting(s) that aren't right now.   Does anyone know what I can do to fix this? Also, I have access to a flash USB floppy drive but there is no floppy drive installed on this machine.

jmwills · Answer

Try this link: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Raimie · Answer

Thank you for responding. I will try that although I also have problems reading a CD. Both the optical drives are DVD ROM, but I dont think that should matter, should it? I dont get the message to boot from CD but I can get to the boot options menue and when I try using CDROM it still wont pick up the Dell installation CD.   I had had the system battery out of the case so maybe I knocked something out of alignment but when I run the drive diagnostics, the hard drive and the two optical drives get picked up so its not that they arent plugged in.   Thank you very much for your help so far. Any ideas about this?

jmwills · Answer

There is one file that is missing so you need to boot into Safe Mode and copy the file from the CD into the System 32 folder, I believe it is.  Google will turn up a wealth of information on this.

Raimie · Answer

It doesnt give me an option to use safe mode. See I wiped the drive already using an old Dell workstation PC. there is no safe mode to go to. I really do appreciate your trying to help me. Any other ideas?

Raimie · Answer

Just wanted to say thanks for the help :) My system is up and running. The only problem I have now is in my new thread anout DVD ROM drives.

Windows General

NTLDR is missing, Press any key to restart

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